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<p>I helped raise two of these extreme statistical outliers, and I have to concur with pleasantvalley. Our first child was an extrovert and extremely tall for his age; he started high school at age 9 half-time by special arrangement (a major chore!) and graduated at 14 with a year off in-between because we took a 3-month world tour. He was eager to learn more advanced math and science and had reached the point where he needed specialists. People who complain about the “lost” socialization aspect don’t realize that such children do not usually relate to others their own age anyway – they relate to adults and much older children because those people can hold intellectually-challenging discussions with them.</p>
<p>My younger son was extremely shy, so we tried a different tactic with him, something akin to what’s been suggested here by the don’t-accelerate crowd. That tactic just created a different set of problems. He was homeschooled for a few years, but since overcoming shyness in a group setting was a goal, he really needed to be placed in a classroom setting. He tested into an “elite” gifted program for 4th grade, which turned out to be emotionally taxing and intellectually unstimulating – the worst of both worlds. One big problem is that correct process is heavily emphasized in grade school: getting the correct answer is not enough if you can’t show all your steps because you make intuitive leaps or because you invent your own more-efficient solutions (which the teachers often can’t understand!). The other major factor is missed homework assignments: if you start to listen to a presentation that’s the same darn thing you’ve been hearing now for two weeks and that you understood on Day One, you tend to tune out and daydream. If somewhere in that half hour of re-explanation, a homework assignment is made, it’s as likely as not to be missed.</p>
<p>We did, in the end, find a workable solution: a charter school opened where most lessons and tests were taken online from home, but classroom attendance was required one day a week. Completing those lessons took at most 2 hours a day and he was free to read books or google “interesting stuff” for another 3 hours a day to meet the required minimum time (which we had to sign off on).</p>
<p>But the first semester of traditional high school had him really frustrated, to the point that he was starting to negatively associate formal education with learning. I managed to get him into a college chemistry class his second semester of freshman year of high school on a trial basis. This was the shot of adrenaline that re-established his love of learning, and we both realized that the problem was simply getting out of “process” classes as quickly as possible and into advanced classes where the answers mattered and where teachers actually appreciated novel approaches to solving problems. He decided to graduate high school in 3 years, bypass multiple prerequisites, and get into as many AP classes as possible, simply because such classes were easier for him, with more emphasis on results and less on process and busywork-type homework. He finished high school at the very top of his class, but he could have well become a high-school dropout had he been born into another family less willing to advocate for him.</p>